Heinrich Meier (philosopher)

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Heinrich Meier (born April 8, 1953 in Freiburg im Breisgau ) is a German philosopher and managing director of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation in Munich .

Life

As a student, Heinrich Meier was the editor and editor of the right-wing extremist school newspaper Im Brennpunkt from 1968 to 1972 , which had a total circulation of almost 200,000 copies and was widely distributed. Authors of this newspaper were among others Henning Eichberg , Bernd Kallina and Dietrich Murswiek .

After graduating from high school in Emmendingen in June 1973, he studied philosophy, political science, sociology and biology at the University of Freiburg a . a. with Wilhelm Hennis . 1985 he was at the Albert-Ludwigs-University of Freiburg Wilhelm Hennis with an edition of Rousseau's Discourse on Inequality Dr. phil. doctorate ( summa cum laude ).

He has headed the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation in Munich as the successor to Armin Mohler since 1985 and has been an honorary professor at the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich since 1999 . In 2006 he accepted an appointment from the University of Chicago as Distinguished Visiting Professor on the Committee on Social Thought with the obligation to teach one quarter per year.

As Managing Director of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation, Heinrich Meier has organized lecture evenings with renowned scientists from all fields from Europe and overseas. Some of the lectures have been published by Meier since 1985, and more than 100 volumes have appeared so far. In addition, Meier has so far published several series of lectures on various topics in the Piper series, including the volumes About Love , Death in Life and About Happiness .

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Meier's thinking and writing is on political philosophy, the subject of which he addressed in his inaugural lecture Why Political Philosophy? has determined in four ways: 1. with regard to their object: political or human things, 2. with regard to the mode of philosophy: the political defense of philosophy understood as a philosophical way of life, 3. with regard to the rational justification of the philosophical Way of life, 4. as a place of self-knowledge of the philosopher.

Political philosophy, as Meier develops it, is, according to its self-understanding, neither a philosophical sub-discipline, nor a cultural phenomenon among others. Political philosophy is rather the return of philosophy to itself, the reflection of its own possibility and necessity in individual philosophical activity. Whoever wants to establish philosophy as a conscious way of life cannot do so by deduction or by taking an axiom of absolute certainty as a basis. Whoever wants to lay the groundwork for philosophical life has to defend it against its most demanding alternative, against its fiercest opponent - he has to justify it articulately, by refuting the strongest alternative. The alternative that political philosophers have always had to grapple with was politics or political life with its demand for justice. This alternative was exacerbated by Revelation and its claim to unconditional obedience to Almighty God, which opposes political philosophy as political theology , as political theory in the obedience of faith. Both political philosophy and political theology pose the question of real life. But while political philosophy tries to answer the question of the right life entirely on the basis of human wisdom, political theology denies the possibility of human knowledge of the most important things.

The incompatibility of philosophy and revelation with regard to their respective justification and their respective self-image has been distorted in the course of the last centuries, at least in Europe, by attempts at synthesizing, but with the strengthening of fundamentalist positions, political theology has also gained attention. With a view to regaining the horizon for political philosophy, Meier profiled the debate between political philosophy and political theology more explicitly than a philosopher before him. All of his writings and books, beginning with his commentary on the Discours sur l'inégalité by Rousseau, bear witness to Meier's steadily deepening understanding of the problem and its indispensability for the philosopher's self-knowledge. Meier gave a brief explanation of the origin of the term and the meaning of the matter of political theology in his work What is Political Theology? done.

In his book Carl Schmitt , Leo Strauss and “The Concept of Political” - A Dialogue Among Absentees (1988) Meier interprets Schmitt's most famous book as the work of a political theologian and comments on the philosophical criticism Leo Strauss made in 1932 in his comments on Carl Schmitt He practiced the concept of the political in Schmitt's position. As the first interpreter, Meier subjects the three versions of Schmitt's most famous work (the first and the third hardly known) to an in-depth analysis and shows how the philosophical provocation of Leo Strauss moved Schmitt to his own political theology most clearly in the third and last Version from 1933 to be recognized.

Meier continues the philosophical criticism of political theology in The Teaching of Carl Schmitt. Four chapters on the distinction between political theology and political philosophy (1994). In four chapters, Meier works out the prerequisites not explicitly reflected in Schmitt's Political Theology and the resulting consequences for the political theologian and the status of his theory.

The first chapter - "Morality or Your Own Question as Shape" - interprets the meaning of the enemy on the basis of Schmitt's need for security, which no human certainty can satisfy, and the related importance of morality, which cannot be justified by any human law.

In the second chapter - "Politics or What is Truth?" - Meier continues the interpretation of the concept of the political based on its three versions. Schmitt's assertion that the political is the total, which completely encompasses the human being, can only be understood under the precondition of the certainty that the human being is completely determined by his political action and that this action is understood as an answer to a commandment that is not in question may be asked. For political theology, the sphere of the political is not the place of unreserved questioning of the opinions and claims that are put forward in it, but the sphere of the morally demanding "metaphysical" decision between good and evil, which is all that matters.

The third chapter - “Revelation or whoever is not with me is against me” - shows that revelation from the outset, by distinguishing between obedience and disobedience, forbids the choice of philosophical life as sinful disobedience to the sovereignty of God. Philosophical life is nothing else than the fall of man . The connection between the sovereignty of God and the doctrine of original sin can only be established through belief in God's omnipotence - a belief that relies on God's unfathomable in order to save God's omnipotence is.

Meier's fourth chapter - "History or The Christian Epimetheus " - is devoted to Schmitt's historical thinking. Schmitt's position that everything that is essential in this world is essentially historical, but that all historical truth is only true once, means that the historically concrete action required of people must be defeated by constitutive blindness. The demanding moral decision that matters, the correct distinction between friend and foe, is a blind decision. Life in the truth of revelation is blind and thus runs counter to both its own hope and its own claims.

Of particular importance in Meier's book is the first-time interpretation of the book "The Leviathan in Thomas Hobbes' theory of the state" by Carl Schmitt, which sheds light on Schmitt's problems in dealing with the political philosopher Thomas Hobbes .

Meier's volume The theological-political problem on the subject of Leo Strauss (2003) brings together three of his essays on a subject that is no less Meier's subject than that of Strauss: "The theological-political problem", "On the genealogy of the belief in revelation" and " Death as God. A note on Martin Heidegger ”. In the American edition published in 2006, The theologico-political problem has been expanded to include two previously unpublished English lectures by Leo Strauss on the subject: "The Living Issues of German Post-War Philosophy" (1940) and "Reason and Revelation" (1948). Meier understands the theological-political problem as the “inner connection” of all the philosophical problems raised by Strauss, “from the dialogue between the ancient and the modern, through philosophy as a way of life and the exoteric-esoteric art of writing to the criticism of historicism ” (p. 13).

The theological-political problem is the short formula for the questions to which political philosophy must be able to give a reasonable answer: it must refute the truth claims of revelation and think through the possibilities and limits of politics.

Honors

Fonts

Standalone publications

  • Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Discours sur l'origine et les fondements de l'inégalité parmi les hommes / Discourse on the origin and the foundations of inequality among people. Critical edition of the integral text with German translation, an essay on the rhetoric and the intention of the work as well as a detailed commentary. Paderborn 1984. Schöningh, UTB for Science 1984. 7th edition 2019. Introductory essay in Chinese translation 2003.
  • Carl Schmitt, Leo Strauss and “The Concept of the Political”. To a dialogue among those absent. With the essay by Leo Strauss on the “Concept of the Political” and three unpublished letters to Carl Schmitt from 1932/1933. Stuttgart 1988. New edition Stuttgart, Weimar 1998. Third edition. With an afterword. 2013. French 1990. Japanese 1993. American 1995, 2006. Chinese 2002. Spanish 2008. Italian 2011. Russian 2012. Korean 2019.
  • The teaching of Carl Schmitt - four chapters to differentiate between political theology and political philosophy. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 1994. Second edition. With an afterword. 2004. Third edition. With a review “The Controversy about Political Theology” 2009. Fourth edition 2012. American 1998, expanded paperback edition 2011. Chinese 2004. French 2009. Italian 2013. French 2014. Japanese 2015. Italian 2017. Korean 2019.
  • The thought movement of Leo Strauss. The history of philosophy and the philosopher's intention. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 1996. Chinese 2002. American 2006. French 2006. Spanish 2006. Japanese 2010.
  • Why Political Philosophy? Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2000. 2nd edition 2001. Chinese 2001. American 2002. French 2006. Spanish 2006. Japanese 2008.
  • The theological-political problem - On the subject of Leo Strauss. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2003, Chinese 2004. French 2006. Spanish 2006. Japanese 2010.
  • “Les rêveries du Promeneur Solitaire” - Rousseau on philosophical life. Munich 2005. 2nd edition 2010. Chinese 2006. Japanese 2008. French 2010. American 2010. Korean 2019.
  • What is political theology? - What is Political Theology? Munich 2006.
  • Leo Strauss and the Theologico-Political Problem . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2006. 7th edition 2008. Contains two previously unpublished lectures by Leo Strauss.
  • About the happiness of philosophical life. Reflections on Rousseau's “Rêveries” in two books . CH Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62287-8 . Chinese 2013. American 2016.
  • Political philosophy and the challenge of the revealed religion . CH Beck, Munich 2013, ISBN 978-3-406-65474-9 . Chinese 2014. American 2018. Italian 2019.
  • Politics and Practical Philosophy. Commemorative speech at Wilhelm Hennis (scientific papers and speeches on philosophy, politics and intellectual history band 76) . Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-428142910 .
  • What is Nietzsche's Zarathustra? A philosophical discussion . CH Beck, Munich 2017, ISBN 978-3-406-70794-0 . Chinese 2019. American 2019.
  • Nietzsche's legacy. "Ecce homo" and "The Antichrist". Two books on nature and politics . CH Beck, Munich 2019. ISBN 978-3-406-73953-8 .

Leo Strauss: Collected Writings in Six Volumes (Editor)

  • Volume 1: Spinoza's Critique of Religion and Associated Writings. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 1996. With a “Foreword by the Editor”. 2nd, revised and expanded edition 2001. 3rd, revised and expanded edition 2008.
  • Volume 2: Philosophy and Law - Early Writings. Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 1997. With a “Foreword by the Editor”. 1st, revised reprint 1998. 2nd reprint 2004. 2nd, revised and expanded edition 2013.
  • with Wiebke Meier (ed.): Volume 3: Hobbes' political science and related writings - letters . Metzler, Stuttgart, Weimar 2001. With a “Foreword by the Editor”. 1st, revised reprint 2003. Second, revised edition 2008.

Publications of the Carl Friedrich von Siemens Foundation (editor)

  • The challenge of evolutionary biology. Piper, Munich 1988. 2nd edition 1989. 3rd edition 1992.
  • To diagnose modernity. Piper, Munich 1990.
  • with Gerhard Börner , Jürgen Ehlers : From Big Bang to Complex Universe. The cosmology of the present. Piper, Munich 1993.
  • with Detlev Ploog : Man and his brain. The consequences of evolution. Piper, Munich 1997. 2nd edition 1998.
  • Gerhard Neumann : About love. A symposium. Piper, Munich 2000. 2nd edition 2001. 3rd edition 2008. 4th edition 2010.
  • with Friedrich Wilhelm Graf : Death in Life. A symposium. Piper, Munich 2004. 2nd edition 2008. 3rd edition 2009.
  • About happiness. A symposium. Piper, Munich 2008. 2nd edition 2010.
  • with Friedrich Wilhelm Graf : Politics and Religion: For Diagnosing the Present. CH Beck, Munich 2013. 2nd edition 2017. ISBN 978-3-406-65297-4 .
  • with Friedrich Wilhelm Graf : The future of democracy. Criticism and plea. CH Beck, Munich 2018. ISBN 978-3-406-72614-9 .

literature

  • Justin Michael Gottschalk: Knowledge or Power: Heinrich Meier and the Case For Political Philosophy (doctoral thesis at the University of California, San Diego, 2014) concise summary (English)
  • Political Philosophy versus Political Theology? The question of violence in the field of tension between politics and religion , ed. by Wolfgang Palaver , Andreas Oberprantacher, Dietmar Regensburger, Innsbruck, Innsbruck University Press, 2011. ISBN 978-3-902811-12-7 (Interdisciplinary examination of Meier's distinction between political philosophy and political theology ) pdf-file
  • J. Harvey Lomax: Carl Schmitt, Heinrich Meier, and the End of Philosophy , in Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy Vol. 28/1 (Fall 2000).
  • Marco Menon: Heinrich Meier e la sfida della teologia politica , in Il Politico 84/1 (2019), pp. 100–116.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hans-Dieter Bamberg: The Germany Foundation eV Studies on the forces of the “democratic center” and conservatism in the Federal Republic of Germany , Marburger Abhandlungen zur Politische Wissenschaft Vol. 23 1978, pp. 322, 421
  2. ↑ http://www.diss-duisburg.de/Arbeitsbereich/Archiv/archiv_liste.htm
  3. ↑ http://www.gge-em.de/gge/index.php?id=113
  4. ↑ http://socialthought.uchicago.edu/directory/heinrich-meier
  5. ↑ http://carl-friedrich-von-siemens-stiftung.de/
  6. ↑ http://carl-friedrich-von-siemens-stiftung.de/publikationsreihe-themen-die-stimmen-aus-dem-limbus.html
  7. ↑ Leibniz Medal 2005 to Prof. Dr. phil. Heinrich Meier. Retrieved August 8, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Hans-Christoph Keller: Prof. Dr. Heinrich Meier becomes honorary senator of the Humboldt University - press portal. Retrieved August 8, 2019 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Meier, Heinrich
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German philosopher
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1953
PLACE OF BIRTH Freiburg in Breisgau